Return to the Spirit World
by Yubabian
Summary: When Chihiro sees Haku Kohaku being harmed in her mind, she ventures back to a dystopia in the Spirit World, and Yubaba's power reigns over more than wanted, read as Chihiro and her friends try to stop Yubaba's reign of torturous power once more.
1. The Departure

A small girl opened her eyes and squinted

A small girl opened her eyes and squinted. The sun bore down on her pupils and she quickly rubbed her eyes with distaste for the sudden wake up call. The girl pulled the covers above her head, aching for one last ounce of sleep, but to no avail. Under her pink covers she quivered with nervousness.

"Honey get up, its time for school." Said a voice from a door, the girl didn't move, wallowing in her own fear. She could see a faint figure past the blanket, a dark mass that was awaiting her arrival into levelheadedness. The figure moved closer and reached an arm out to the girl, "_Honey_, its time to wake up, your father needs to go to work early and you've already missed the bus.

"Why do I have to go to school anyways? I just want to be with Haku in the spirit world." Snarled the girl to her mother, to which her mother's usual response was shot back.

"Chihiro, you know that I have no clue who Haku even is and we've told you that there's no spirit world, so get up, its time for school, no day dreaming."

Chihiro got out of her bed solemnly, her downtrodden hair hung past her shoulders, her bangs too far into her eyes.

"And you also need a haircut too; I'll schedule an appointment--"Her mom walked away, still in thought of Chihiro.

Chihiro walked over to her closet, hoping to find her washed clothes neatly in a pile, but no clothes were in her closet.

"Mom! I need my clothes!" Chihiro yelled to her mother.

"Just one second sweetie!" Her mother said to Chihiro, and soon a basket of clean clothing arrived at her doorway. Chihiro picked a nice outfit and looked one last time at her room, then out the window. She looked down the grassy hill to the tree with small huts splayed under it.

"If only I could go back, I just want to go back." Chihiro whispered to herself.

"What honey?" Her father said to her, adjusting his tie at her doorway, "Time to go! Pack up your stuff and we're out of here."

Chihiro didn't respond to him, but instead she picked up her comforter and placed it on the bed and walked out of the room. Her father followed suit and soon they were driving to her school. She looked in the backseat and found her wilted bouquet's card and she placed it in her pocket, the memories associated with the card were too much for her to lose. When they arrived at the school, her father kissed her on the head and told her to have a nice day, she nodded and said goodbye, still shaking with anticipation of the school day.

The preceding day at school was nothing out of the ordinary, she present her project and got a high scoring mark on it, however, its what happened after school that is ultimately interesting. After speaking to her teacher, Chihiro made her way to the loading dock, only to see her bus driving away, exhaust fumes abound. Her heart sank, another day that she missed the bus and was forced to walk. She proceeded to walk home with a determined air about her. She took a right on the main road to her house and kept walking. Soon the road turned into dirt, and the tree with spirits' homes beneath it was in front of Chihiro.

The breeze was slight, her hair rustled nonetheless. The grass moved like a verdant ocean, endlessly waving at Chihiro. The blue house on the end was present as well, the prison that kept Chihiro away from her friend in the spirit world for a year. She looked at the small houses. Dirty and disheveled, she sensed that something was wrong. The dreams that she'd been having were different than her basic ones, they were darker, scarier, nightmares. She was sure this was because of the spirit world messing with her mind. The wind picked up speed and played with her hair some more, this time pulling her in to the pathway like the breeze did one year previously, pulling her through the train station. She turned towards the pathway and started making her way through the underbrush that was reminiscent of the underbrush that coated her father's car one year ago.

The path was longer than she thought, or was that because her father drove at such a high speed previously? Nonetheless, she made her way to the train station. The path opened up in a v-fashion and the same small statue with doubled heads greeted her with a mossy grin. Chihiro's legs were somewhat tired, but she trudged on into the tunnel. When she reached the end of the tunnel, she was fatigued. She sat down on one of the many useless benches riddled throughout the loading bay and took a slight rest.

"Just a quick nap…" Chihiro said to herself as her eyes closed and her body flopped onto the wooden bench.

Hours later, she awoke once more, this time not to a lurking sun waiting to wake her up, but instead to the sound of waves, the grassy knoll was filled with water once more. More excited than ever, she quickly got up and ran to the archway leading from the train station to the newly created bay. There was a ferry, just like the year before, there was ornate decorations flirting with her eyes, small paper cut out to look like ornate lace was hung around the railing. It danced with the levels and encompassed the bright ship that looked more fun than ever. Chihiro remembered the creepy spirits that came out of it last time, with paper on their faces and fans in their hands; their eerie presence was not lost about her. But this time, the ship was different, as was the train station: they were both empty.

One would assume that a place full of spirits would be lifeless, but it could not hold up to the overcoming coalescing fear and dread that was racking Chihiro's brain at that moment in time. The train station was supposed to be bustling, as was the ship, but neither were even close.

"Hello? Anyone? _Hello!_" She yelled out into the dark midst, but to no avail. No creature or spirit responded to her pleas of social salvation as she yelled some more, calling out to anyone who was near, but to no avail.

The ship neared the train station, and as usual it let down its ramp to oncoming passengers. Chihiro, not knowing what to do, quickly boarded the ferry. The red planks clanged as they locked into place, and then the ferry moved once more. She was unaware of what was going to happen, her near future as mysterious as her distant future, her parents, unknowing of the adventure that she was going to embark on – by choice – were at home, worrying for her safety.

Chihiro's eyes became puffy with tears; she bit her bottom lip and gripped the post nearest to her as the ferry took her back to the spirit world, so she could see Haku and Zeniba once more.


	2. The Meeting

Chapter 2: The Meeting

She stepped off of the ferry as the ramp clanged down on the stone steps. The frog near the top was still spewing clear water. Chihiro dodged the frog's stream and ran up the stairs, arms folded: the breeze from the bay was much stronger now that she was off of the ferry.

No one else disembarked off the ferry with her and the colorful mass soon drifted off back to the train station once more.

Chihiro continued to run through the main street. The once happy and colorful buildings that lined the way looked sodden and depressed, their paint chipped and the windows broken. Chihiro looked through the alleyways to try to spot some spirits, but with no luck. The streets were completely bare except for her; the lanterns that lit it up weren't even on. Due to the lack of light, Chihiro tripped multiple times, and scraped her knees.

With blood trickling down her legs, Chihiro could feel the stinging sensation on her kneecaps, and she wished to take many bites from the fruit of the river spirit; the same fruit that healed Haku and No-Face the year before. Thinking about Haku made her smile and soon she was running through the streets once more, completely replenished by a good memory.

A scream filled the air with sheer fright, Chihiro stopped once again. A dragon, ripped from the pages of a book of legends, squirmed through the air with broken glass falling behind it. The white scales on the dragon were barely even visible as Chihiro peered up at it. A girl was riding on the back of the dragon and the girl was screaming with all her might. It swooped down like a fighter pilot, the girl screamed once more. Fire was spewing from its mouth, burning every building in sight. Chihiro was frightened, in her previous journey to the spirit world; she was never presented with such terror and fright such as death, only the fear of losing her parents and Haku, now she could lose her life.

She ducked into the nearest alleyway, a tight space that could fit only two people going in opposite directions. She quickly ran down the nearest alleyway in silence, she knew she had to get to the bathhouse, but then where from there? Her mind raced as she raced down the alleyway. The dragon was seen above and the girl still screaming. Chihiro slipped and fell once more, the dark still encompassing her vision. Her reaction was the indicator to the dragon, she screamed as she fell, ripping her wounded knees open once more. The dragon hurriedly squirmed back over to the location of Chihiro and attempted to fly down from above the alleyway, but to no avail. The rooflines above the alleyway made the space between them too small to be passed through, and the dragon was forced to find another way to get to Chihiro.

She kept running, she heard the dragon above her tearing tiles off of the roof with its claws and even felt the tiles hit the ground one by one, but she kept going. A door was about ten feet away from her and she knew she had to get to it to find salvation.

It seemed like the door was inching closer, like Chihiro's vision was so skewed that it seemed that she was barely making headway down the narrow alleyway, but it really was not the case. Like a swift runner, Chihiro got there faster than she expected and wrenched open the old wooden door.

The door creaked and dust puffed and pouted its way out of its slumber, spreading itself throughout the ground before Chihiro as she quickly raced inside of the building. She closed the door shut, her back against the smelly wood, and slouched down, her behind just delicately touching the dusty floor below her. Her hair rose up in the fashion that it always did when she was uncomfortable, and smoothly went back down, a deep breath passed her lips. Her legs splayed out in a 'V' pattern, Chihiro then opened her eyes and what she saw was anything but fun.

Large fish lined a pathway in front of her, scales shining and insides brewing in the late summer heat. Their eyes lifeless, the fish simply lay there with dead stares and open mouths. They were unmoving yet they were atrocious. Something so dead was so terrible to Chihiro's eyes, and her nose. She wanted to leave, she wanted to leave the Spirit World and never come back, her cons outweighing her pros. Her eyes reddened and her mouth pulsed with every breath, she tried to keep it in, but her immaturities at her young age forbid her to, she spilled her tears on the floor. A motion in the corner of her eye. A darkness moving past her pupil. An uneasy feeling taking over her body. Chihiro opened her tear filled eyes and peered into the distance, past the rotting fish bodies. A spirit was slowly walking towards her, the spirit soon turned into multiple spirits and soon she had a group of about fifteen spirits walking up to her.

"Stay back!" Chihiro yelped cautiously, not wanting them to hurt her.

Low mumbling was the response to the warning, and they kept advancing. The ominous spirits walked to Chihiro slowly, with their lumpy heads cocked to either side of their nonexistent shoulders, and one would expect an inquisitive glance upon their faces – if they had them.

"Get away!" Chihiro screamed, her frailty obviously showing, as her hands went to the side of her face and her knees bent to block the ghastly sight from her eyes, "I said stay away!"

Some more low mumbling chimed back at her, this time a bit louder, they were trying to send a message to her, but she wasn't having any of it. The spirits walked up to her and the evident leader of them pointed to a window, Chihiro made no response. Another spirit tried to grasp her focus by simply passing through her, which sent a shiver down her spine, but no response. Finally the spirits walked away from Chihiro, not trying to help the ignorant and spiteful little girl.

Chihiro's fright wasn't poorly based though; her last trip to the Spirit World was daunting: the spirits scared her to no end, until the actual end of her trip in which she was used to their slow walking and their lack of speaking, save for a couple mumbles and moans.

As they slowly walked and mumbled away from her location, she looked up, eyes wide and fearful. The lumpy beings slipped and slid into the distance. The message was lost once more, Chihiro had no plan of action after this, the meeting that convened really never took place, one party arrived and all was lost on Chihiro's part.

"Hey! Wait up!" Chihiro yelled again, in the needy tone that she yelled one year previously as her parents turned into pigs in front of her eyes. The spirits didn't turn around, they didn't stop, they kept moving, the silent gang passed through a wall and left, and Chihiro was alone once more.


	3. The View

Chapter 3 - The View

The dragon, with bright green accenting scales coursing over its spine, smashed through a window overhead. Glass splashed to the cold cement floor like water, wooden window panes flicked outwards and fell fifty yards away. The dragon twisted and curled, recoiling against a blast it thought it could take.

One of the spirits from the other room suddenly appeared, then a few more, and a few more. A scream jolted Chihiro, the hair on the back of her neck stood straight up. Her eyes were like saucers, and her jaw was to the floor. The spirits began to attack the swooping, diving, and recoiling dragon. What Chihiro didn't know is that someone was still on top, holding on for her life. The black spirits soon engulfed the ferocious dragon, a subtle gesture against the tumultuous beast.

But it was effective. A loud roar echoed as the dragon breathed its last breath. After the roar came a scream, and then a moist 'thud' when the girl hit a large pile of squid and rolled to the floor. Chihiro stood up, staring at the situation across the warehouse. She sprinted over to the girl that now lay lifelessly on the floor.

It was Lin. Her slimy body was splayed out in a gnarly manner, Chihiro winced at her.

"Here, maybe this can help," she said to the unconscious Lin.

Chihiro moved her arms and legs so she looked much more comfortable, of course Chihiro didn't _know_ if Lin was more comfortable, but she assumed so.

"Thank you!" Chihiro waved to the departing shady spirits. They moaned and moved through the walls once more. It was just Chihiro again.

The walls of the warehouse were cement, as was the floor, the ceiling was comprised of tin rafters and the windows were dirty. Chihiro couldn't be comfortable on the freezing cold floor or with the stench of fish and crustacean surrounding and attacking her senses. She shook her head; the beaded sweat on her forehead flew off and slapped the floor, unbeknownst to Chihiro.

The next few hours were a blur, Chihiro walked around, she hummed, she thought of Haku, she thought of ways to make the warehouse prettier, she thought of what dishes her mom would make with these disgusting large fish, she thought of Lin and how she was doing, she thought of the friendly spirits, and she thought of the deceased dragon, now nonexistent. Light slightly poured in from the windows, and a slight purr occurred when the wind from the outdoors picked up and cooled the warehouse down.

"Where – where am I?" The distraught version of Lin awoke, her brown hair fluttered in her eyes as she blinked quickly.

"Lin!" Chihiro yelped quickly and spun around. She dashed over to the distraught Lin and patted her damp skin. "Lin! Feel better! Lin what's wrong? Lin!"

"Calm down, calm down," Lin answered in her condescending, yet kind sarcastic tone. "I was just – what _was _I doing?"

"You were on a dragon." Chihiro filled in.

"Right… and then what?"

"You were screaming for help, the dragon saw me and tried to get me too. You were on his back like you were riding him. Then these spirits, these spirits came and killed the dragon and you fell to the floor. Now I've been waiting for you to wake up so we can get a move on!" Chihiro synthesized. Lin was still somewhat confused but less so than before, which isn't saying much.

"Okay, okay, let's go… where are we even _going?_" Lin questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"To the bathhouse. I need to see Haku." Chihiro said, and got up and walked towards the warehouse door.

"Haku? Haku's been gone ever since you left Chihiro. Yubaba has never heard from him since. No one has seen him."

"What?" Chihiro asked Lin, dumbfounded.

"Haku isn't here in this part of the Spirit World Chihiro." Lin said definitively.

"No, he has to be here, he _must _be. I've seen him in my dreams calling out for me."

"Oh no…" Lin said with a nervous tinge.

"Oh no what? I need to see Haku. He's in trouble."

'Oh no' as in 'oh no these dreams are just hallucinations.' 'Oh no' as in 'Haku really isn't "calling out for you," more like "you're calling out for Haku."'"

"No I'm not!" Chihiro yelled, she struggled to open the large wooden warehouse door, but her small frame persevered and pushed it open. She traipsed out of the room in a derogatory manner, and Lin soon followed. They were back in another alleyway between a colorful dining hall and a not-so-colorful bathing facility.

"Chihiro, talk to me. Haku hasn't turned up in a while, and neither have you—."

"Exactly, so maybe he'll turn up."

"I'll bet a roasted newt that he won't, Chihiro."

"I'll bet _ten _roasted newts that he _will,_ Lin."

Chihiro defiantly walked faster than Lin.

Lin was still wearing her clothes from the bathhouse, nurse-like scrubs that were bare around the shoulders to allow breathing – the baths got pretty hot – and her hair was still cut in a similar way. Her hair was surprisingly wavier, not the pencil straight it once was the previous year, _perhaps she straightens it_, Chihiro thought to herself while they were meandering through the labyrinth of alleyways behind the large thoroughfare of the street.

They made their way towards the bathhouse slowly but surely. Chihiro saw signs that she saw previously and she saw some familiar faces. Not No Face, but some familiar faces – even though most of the spirits lacked definite faces and the ones that did often were duplicated several tens of times. As they got closer to the gargantuan bathhouse, a plethora of options befell the duo. They could go several different ways: above the bridge and risk being caught (Chihiro struck this idea down immediately when she remembered the pest of a frog that frightened her the first time), go below the bridge on a smaller, more unstable, bridge (Lin and Chihiro both saved this idea as a last resort – neither of them wanted to risk their lives to get into the bathhouse just yet), or travel down deep into the catacombs of the surrounding area and sneak into the lower levels of the bathhouse to avoid detection, which seemed the best option at the time.

Chihiro and Lin found a small doorway off of a very narrow alleyway. Their shoulders would bump each other's when walking side by side so they walked single file for a couple of minutes: all Chihiro could think was "_I'm glad I'm not claustrophobic_." They opened the tiny door and both crouched through it. But before Chihiro was something that she did not want to see again: a long set of stairs, a jagged spine of the devil, staring back at them lifelessly. A breeze slapped her hair to her cheeks and made them red: it was cold being so high up. The night sky glittered; Chihiro could taste the stale air above these large stairs. Lin was quiet as well, for the same reason. Neither of them wanted to brave down the tremendous stairway that almost seemed never-ending, but one could see a slightly large concrete plinth that symbolized the end.

Suddenly Lin was standing alone; Chihiro was clattering down the stairs.

"Chihiro, what are you doing?" Lin yelled down to her, despite only being ten feet away.

"Someone has to get a move on!" Chihiro yelled back.


End file.
